Newbie training question...

Hey everyone, first time poster here!

So here's the deal. I'm trying to figure out how to squeeze in enough training time for a ride in early October. The ride is 150 miles and has about 15,000 feet of climbing over 4 summits. I'm ramping up my mileage 10% every week so I let myself get used to the longer miles, and I'm slowly adding in climbs as well.

First, how much climbing should I try and include over the course of a week in order to climb that many vertical feet in one ride? Is there a reasonable guess out there as to what it should be? The first climb is about 2000 feet, the second one is only 1000, the third is 3000 and the fourth is about 2500 with the summit being 8400 feet. The fourth summit is 120 miles, and after you get to the top, it's pretty much downhill to the finish.

Second, how long should my long training ride be? With the ride being in October, there is only 11.5 hours from sun up to sundown, so really, I can't be on the bike any longer then that for this ride.

Third, I commute on my bike, so in order to get more mileage, I add miles to my commute both to and from work in addition to riding during lunch. Should I not be riding 30-40 miles every day like that without an easy day or a rest day? I've been commuting for years so it's not like riding 5 days in a row is a new thing for me, it's just different for me to do that many miles 5 days in a row. My normal commute is only 8 miles one way, 16 total.

Ride easy to work and hard on the way home. Since it's a 150mi ride, you need to be comfortable in the saddle for at least 100mi. Do at least one 120mi ride within a month before the actual ride. As for a weekly long ride, I would recommend somewhere between 60-80mi.

Honestly, after 80mi it's all about nutrition and pacing. If you can do 150mi in a week, you can suffer through 150mi in one ride.

You don't want to suffer through the ride, I'm assuming, so I would train more than that 150mi/wk. It sounds like you are doing everything correctly. Get into some group rides, if possible. Raising your overall threshold power will make any ride of any distance easier.

I would aim for something like 7000' feet or so in a week, over 70 or so miles. You can do more if you want, but I think I'd be okay with that sort of volume. The one caveat is that if you haven't spent a long time on the bike, I suggest at least a century ride before hand, so you can figure out nutrition and hydration.

My other advice is to go and ride a few climbs that are similar to the ones on the ride - ideally go and ride one of the climbs from the ride, preferably in the 2000' range. The sort of effort you need to make to do a climb like that is very different than what you do on short climbs - you might be climbing for 60 minutes, for example.

It would probably help to provide a bit more background. Have you ridden century's before? If not, what's been your longest distance? Where do you live/ride now - what is your altitude/access to climbs? Round here, it's not difficult to get access to 2-3,000ft climbs, but we're at sea level - so going and doing the same thing at higher elevation becomes a different challenge.

I'd want to be pretty comfortable with a full century that has around 10k' of climbing before doing a 150 mile ride with 15k'

Getting your miles in by doing the same distance five days a week at the same intensity isn't the best way to go about it. It's better than not doing the miles, but arranging your training into micro and macro cycles would be more effective. Doing a hard day followed by a recovery day (or 2-3 hard days then a recovery day) will get you more quality work than doing the same thing consistently every day. When you do that, you are more limited in how much/hard you can work without overreaching. To improve you need stress and recovery.

As far as the amount of climbing goes, I'd want to be doing 10-15k' a week. A good portion of that should be climbs that take you more than 20 minutes. If you have access to 3000' climbs that would be ideal. Some of that should be at threshold or SST (depending on whose theories you subscribe to), some of it should be at an endurance pace that's a little above the pace you'll have in the event. Those days would be your long ride days on the weekend.

For the Everest Challenge (29k' in two days) I do a number of weeks of around 25k' (in 15-18 hours of riding). But only about two weeks in a row before I take a rest week, which for me is about three easy days.

The 150 miler is the one I'm shooting for. One day, 150 miles, not 5 days at 150 per day.

I've ridden a century before, but it's been a long time. There is a century ride I'm planning on doing two or three weeks prior to the event that should let me work out the food and drink portion of the ride. I'm in Boise, which is about 2700 ft. There are some good climbs just up the street. I can ride an out and back that summits at the local ski resort which includes about 3500 feet of climbing and I think the highest point is 6000ft or so. Round trip to my house is about 45 miles for that one. If nothing else, i should be able to ride that twice in one day as a good training ride, right?

I can ride an out and back that summits at the local ski resort which includes about 3500 feet of climbing and I think the highest point is 6000ft or so. Round trip to my house is about 45 miles for that one. If nothing else, i should be able to ride that twice in one day as a good training ride, right?